The next round of talks regarding Kyiv’s so-called Peace Formula will be conducted on January 14 in Davos, Switzerland, a day before the yearly World Economic Forum’s meeting of globalist elites. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced the news of the talks on X on Sunday, December 10, with the Swiss foreign ministry verifying his claims.
The meeting will build on prior discussions during three previous rounds of talks held this year, in Denmark (June), in Saudi Arabia (August), and in Malta (October). Representatives of 66 states and international organizations attended the Malta talks, according to Kyiv.
Switzerland and Ukraine will co-host the upcoming Davos conference to further enforce Zelensky’s 10-point Peace Formula, a list of demands that entail the withdrawal of Russian troops, the creation of a Nuremberg-style special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes, and the complete restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which, according to Zelensky, is “not up for negotiations.”
What these demands imply is that Zelensky will not enter into any negotiations with Russia but rather adhere to the maximalist “victory-at-all-cost narrative” — fighting until every inch of territory is recaptured — notwithstanding the mediocre results of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Although Zelensky’s belief in ultimate victory remains “immovable, verging on the messianic,” as Time recently portrayed it, “Zelensky’s associates themselves are extremely skeptical about the [current] policy.”
Most recently, it was Oleksii Arestovych, Zelensky’s strategic communications adviser until January 2023.
In an interview with the Irish Sun published this week, Arestovych urged for his country to conduct peace talks with Russia. He said that Zelensky’s cultivated “hero persona” has trapped Ukraine in a never-ending conflict, and with the death toll skyrocketing to around 300,000, it was time to start discussing peace terms — including ditching all NATO aspirations for the sake of Ukraine’s very own survival.
Zelensky “thinks not about the national interest but about his own position,” the former top advisor claimed.
Time will tell regarding whether the impending Davos meeting will get Ukraine any closer to peace, as none of the previous meetings under the same format produced any tangible outcomes. Reacting to the news, Moscow said the Peace Formula conference was “incapable of leading to peace” as it was merely attempting to “push through Ukrainian ultimatums” without any considerations about other parties.
During a recent joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden on December 12, Zelensky alleged that Kyiv’s forces had not lost a single village to Russia, but had obtained victory in the Black Sea, destroyed the Wagner group, and continued to proceed in combating Russia. Zelensky and Biden met in the Oval Office as the Ukrainian leader came to Washington in an effort to convince U.S. lawmakers to authorize more military aid for Kyiv. This was after the U.S. Senate blocked a bill intended to provide Ukraine with $60 billion in assistance last week, as Republicans demanded tougher immigration control on the U.S. southern border in exchange for authorizing the aid.
Zelensky boasted about Kyiv’s “successes” in its campaign against Russia, though he highlighted that these accomplishments were “not easy.” Notably, his claims have been largely unsubstantiated, according to open news sources and admissions from members of his own government, the military, and Zelensky himself.
In late November, Zelensky revealed that the Ukrainian military would change tactics, from attacking to building fortifications, admitting that Kyiv’s much-hyped counteroffensive, which began in early June and planned to cut Russia’s land bridge to Crimea, had ended in failure. Based on Russian Defense Ministry estimates, Ukraine has lost over 125,000 troops and 16,000 pieces of heavy equipment in botched attempts to advance over the past six months.
Earlier this week, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Colonel General Aleksandr Syrsky, said that the Russian military “doesn’t stop conducting offensive operations along the entire front.” The situation for the Ukrainian defenders “remains difficult,” he disclosed.
Despite Ukraine’s failed military strategy against Russia, the Kyiv regime and its Western backers continue to insist that Russia has to be defeated on the battlefield, putting the notion of peace talks on the back burner.
On November 28, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó reasserted his country’s long-held stance regarding the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, urging his counterparts in the military alliance to address their botched strategy.
“NATO member states should rethink their failed Ukraine strategy, but most of them show no willingness to do so despite the lack of success seen over the past year and a half,” Szijjártó told the press, pointing out that several foreign ministers had called for present levels of support to Ukraine to be kept, while others suggested NATO ought to increase its aid and enlarge its involvement in the war, Magyar Hirlap reported.
“I expressed the Hungarian position that we still consider and hope that the decision we made here more than a year ago is still valid, namely that everything must be done to prevent NATO from becoming involved in the conflict,” Szijjártó said, highlighting that “everything must be done to avoid a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.”
“No proposals that went against this have been put forward so far, and the good news is that no one has taken the initiative today either to change or reconsider this decision,” he added.
Szijjártó made sure to remind everyone that NATO’s strategy from the outset of the war was for Ukraine to win Russia on the battlefield, which would then lead to political ramifications for the Kremlin.
“I think today everyone can see — though they may not admit it — that this plan has failed,” he told journalists. “The goals and hopes of the Ukrainian counteroffensive have been dashed because there has been no major change on the battlefield and no breakthrough since its beginning. This has been recognized by many people here. Quietly, cautiously, but still recognized,” he admitted.
